Sunday’s match between the Canadian and Finnish men’s hockey teams isn’t an elimination game, but it is the first chance Canada will have to play against an actual medal threat in Sochi. Finland by most estimates ranks fifth among best-on-best teams at games like this, and in the early going has cut through the Austrian and Norwegian entries with the same ease as Canada.

And for their biggest test of the tournament, head coach Mike Babcock has made some lineup changes.

The Lineup

Via TSN’s Bob McKenzie, Canada’s lines today are as follows:

Jamie Benn – Sidney Crosby – Patrice Bergeron

Matt Duchene – Ryan Getzlaf – Corey Perry

Patrick Marleau – Jonathan Toews – Jeff Carter

Patrick Sharp/Chris Kunitz – John Tavares – Rick Nash

Duncan Keith – Shea Weber

Marc-Edouard Vlasic – Drew Doughty

Jay Bouwmeester – Alex Pietrangelo

Dan Hamhuis

Carey Price

The Second Guessing

Let’s start on the back end.

I probably would have gone with Roberto Luongo over Carey Price, but then I would have started Luongo in the first game and Price in the second because I entered this tournament valuing Luongo a hair over Price. Babcock has the order reversed, and honestly the players are so close that it’s impossible to fault him for that. He didn’t have a reason to change his mind, so Price gets first crack at the games that matter.

I was surprised to see P.K. Subban scratched; I thought he looked excellent in Canada’s last game and is pretty clearly the team’s fifth-best defenceman, with left siders Vlasic, Bouwmeester and Hamhuis all behind him on the depth chart. It’s going to be very interesting to see if any defensive weaknesses are exposed by the Finns.

The forward combinations are interesting, and seem predicated on the idea that Crosby will be able to power one line and that the important thing is to make sure lines two and three work. It’s not a bad idea; Benn was fantastic against Norway and has been head-and-shoulders above Kunitz, while Bergeron has been quite good on John Tavares’ wing and had World Junior chemistry with Crosby.

If the first line is a bit of a question mark, the second and third look solid. Getzlaf/Perry have been good in both games, and Duchene really impressed with his speed against Austria; meanwhile Marleau leads the team in scoring and Carter was fantastic in Canada’s second game so the “third” line (I have them listed third because Babcock’s been using them as a hard-checking line to some degree) looks brilliant.

That leaves the other guys with Tavares; I think the only question here is why Kunitz gets a spot over a guy like Martin St. Louis who can be plugged in offensively on any line. Kunitz has not had a good tourney, but sticking him in the bottom four is at least better than putting him on the top line.

Finland

Tough OLY for FLA. Barkov out of tourney (knee). MRI today but expected to miss NHL time (weeks?). Kopecky (head), also expected out of OLY.

The loss of Barkov is a big blow for Finland; he was playing key minutes at centre for the team and is presently the tournament’s top faceoff man with an 83.3 percent win rate.

Fans here in Edmonton have had a chance to see some extremely good Finns up close, and consequently there’s probably a bit of a soft spot for the team; in a game played against anyone other than Canada I’d expect Finland would probably be the preferred winner by Oilers fans. From Jari Kurri and Esa Tikkanen down to Janne Niinimaa and Jussi Markkanen, Edmonton’s been given good service by the country of Sisu.

Jonathan Willis is a freelance writer.
He currently works for Oilers Nation, Sportsnet, the Edmonton Journal and Bleacher Report.
He's co-written three books and worked for myriad websites, including Grantland, ESPN, The Score, and Hockey Prospectus. He was previously the founder and managing editor of Copper & Blue.

Great point by Elliotte Friedman on CBC, who I like in no small part because he can make me rethink things: Canada's weakness on the left side actually makes a strong argument in favour of making the spare D an LD, because that way there's a replacement handy if Vlasic/Bouwmeester struggle.

Kunitz still being in the lineup, especially over a guy like St. Louis, makes me all stabby inside.

The fact that Kunitz is even on the team in the FIRST place makes me even MORE stabby.

Agreed.

I thought the rationale for including Kunitz (a terrible rationale, mind you) was his established chemistry with Crosby. Given that he's an inferior player at this level, and they're not lining him up on Crosby's wing, I don't see how they can justify putting him anywhere but in the pressbox

Let's hope coach B is not playing Kunitz over St. Louis to prove a point. Nash and Kunitz to me were the WTF picks and from what I have seen have done zip to dispel the concern.

St. Louis has had some jump and looked better than both IMO. Now is not the time to play the "plugs" with a very good Tavares, for all intents and purposes taking him out of the games as well, simply to prove a point.

I know they are good hockey players and one or two changes on the fourth line shouldn't be the difference maker. I also realize Babcock has forgotten more than I will ever know about this game. But the fact it is when you look at the Zamuner ... er .... Kunitz thing, realize it is really tough to trust any of these goalies and consider that the coach seems bound and determined to dress a shaky Hamhuis and shakier Vlasic, while simultaneously changing PK Subban to PK "Sub-in" - it all starts to add up as the tournament proceeds.

Thinking the same thing. One thing I noticed was his gap was way different and once he committed to taking an offensive player he stayed with him vs his habit in the NHL of losing his guy all the time. As well he seemed to be playing much more assertively.

Different system? (Russian coach to Belov "WTF is this swarm you are talking about Anton?). More comfortable on big rink? Quality of Borscht is much higher in Sochi than Edmonton? Who knows?

Thinking the same thing. One thing I noticed was his gap was way different and once he committed to taking an offensive player he stayed with him vs his habit in the NHL of losing his guy all the time. As well he seemed to be playing much more assertively.

Different system? (Russian coach to Belov "WTF is this swarm you are talking about Anton?). More comfortable on big rink? Quality of Borscht is much higher in Sochi than Edmonton? Who knows?

Connecting Chara and Marincin may be Eakins best move as a coach this year!

Likewise. One thing I notice with other teams is the fact that they always seem to include a couple younger players to expose them to this level of competition. Maybe it's because they aren't as deep as the Canadians but if you are going to leave St. Louis in the stands why not put a player like Hall on the roster for exposure.
I think it is quite obvious that Lowe is not taken seriously or didn't push hard enough for his inclusion.
Kunitz, really? I mean come on, when a player (Crosby) has more influence than a member of the management team (Lowe), there are deeper issues here.
Frustrated!
Hamhuis over Subban? Really?

Wow you have St Louis sitting in the stands and you leave a speedster bull like Hall out of the lineup and this team is getting schooled by out of NHL players. Hall shows more balls then half of these guys playing for Canada.

This game just shows how powerful a "take care of your own zone first" system of play is. The Canadians are more talented but short of risking a game-changing odd man rush, even they can only take what they are given. In this game it isn't much at all.

Crosby has been far from the best player in the world (or on his own team) in this tourney.

So i was puzzled by Freidman and how he handled the post game interview. It came off as bag licking. I had hopes for Elliot but he is sliding in a very familiar direction as far as CBC employees go. The regression to the mean seems to get them all.

Crosby has been far from the best player in the world (or on his own team) in this tourney.

So i was puzzled by Freidman and how he handled the post game interview. It came off as bag licking. I had hopes for Elliot but he is sliding in a very familiar direction as far as CBC employees go. The regression to the mean seems to get them all.

sadly.

I would vehemently° demand that we trade Crosby, as he obviously is too small and isn't getting it done. CMON MACT!!!!

° # of times legitimately using the word vehemently in a post has increased to 3.